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This is a longplay of the Steam version of Yume Nikki, the 2004 cult classic RPG Maker surreal horror adventure from the reclusive Kikiyama. I originally uploaded a version of video on 26 Jan 2019, but I have since realized I accidentally removed the segment in which Madotsuki attains the Neon effect. This version corrects this error and includes several other scenes I missed in my original longplay. However, Windows can no longer run Yume Nikki well for some reason, frequently stuttering and dropping frames at certain moments. There seems to be no fix for this error. And so, rather than re-record an entire longplay, I decided the video would be higher quality if I simply edited the missing scenes into the original footage. For some reason, Yume Nikki's color has changed slightly since my original recording. If you notice any oddness with color or the save files, this is why.
So far as I know, there are only three events not included in this video: the extremely rare appearance of "Takofuusen" in the White Desert; the sad face that appears when Madotsuki stabs the gray blob in the Sewer; and the alternate appearance of "Roary Straw" in the passage between the Endless Road and the White Desert. While some might object that I spend too much time wandering aimlessly in the video, wandering aimlessly while taking in the vibes is a core element of Yume Nikki.
When first exposed to it, I found Yume Nikki terrifying. It is generally considered a horror game. But I expect younger people, existing in a culture that has changed since 2008, might not understand, in the same manner that some influential horror films no longer seem particularly scary. Kikiyama reported that they did not consider Yume Nikki a horror game but instead something warm. Bizarre and wonderful, Yume Nikki suffers from a disappointing ending. However, most people would probably not get that far anyway. This is the rare video game perhaps better uncompleted. Yume Nikki is also a victim of its own success. Techniques and features completely new in 2004 seem less remarkable after so many imitators have iterated on Kikiyama's ideas.
Kikiyama gradually updated Yume Nikki from its first appearance in 2004 through to its apparent completion in 2008, though they never reached a ver. 1.00 release. Over this period, an online community formed around Yume Nikki on a dedicated chan board, Uboachan, that remains active. The influence of this cult following is evident in many of the "unofficial" names given to Yume Nikki's characters, a mishmash of memes and inside jokes retrospectively inscrutable. Often interpreted as a video game about isolation, Yume Nikki has ironically brought people together and continues to do so.
Yume Nikki's fans have spawned a galaxy of "Yume Nikki fan games," generally clones of the original in the same manner as the first person shooters that used to be called "Doom clones." The best known of these might be Yume 2kki (a pun, as in Japanese "2" is read "ni"), an ongoing collaboration between dozens of creators that dwarfs the original. Yume Nikki has also influenced, for example, the designs of Undertale's protagonist and Dr. Gaster. Yume Nikki is an obvious framework for LISA: The First. Yume Nikki is itself one river of the delta of artistic influence stemming from MOTHER, which Yume Nikki extensively references in one of the Famicom Worlds. Some scenes in Yume Nikki carry the flavor of MOTHER 2's Magicant.
This Kadokawa release of Yume Nikki uses a slightly different translation than the version that previously floated around the internet, rendering the names of yōkai effects in English instead of transliterating their Japanese names into Latin letters. This seems like a mistake, since it makes identifying the cultural reference more difficult for someone unfamiliar with the creature in question. However, the Kadokawa version does render "Oni" as "Oni" instead of "Demon," a definite improvement, and translates some minor text the fan translation ignored.
Almost nothing is known about Kikiyama, but they seem to have given their blessing to a manga and novel adaptation of Yume Nikki. In 2018, Kadokawa also released a reimagining entitled YUMENIKKI DREAM DIARY. While it iterates on a few of the original's ideas in interesting ways, particularly the ending, overall I believe this version misses the original's appeal, replacing exploration with uninspired puzzles and platforming and changing the dream world from eerie to actively hostile.
Yume Nikki features a strange amount of Mesoamerican imagery derived from the Paracas and Nazca cultures. I have been doing research into potential meaning behind these images and may release a video about them later on.
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13 сен 2024
